Demonstrators against the opening of the trial of 7 lynching defendants in Haifa.

On August 4, 2005, an AWOL IDF soldier named Eden Natan-Zada opened fire on a bus in the predominantly Arab town of Shfar’am (pop. 35,000) in northern Israel, killing 4 Israeli Arabs and wounding 20. He was captured by police, disarmed and cuffed, and then was beaten to death by the crowd, with the video cameras rolling.

The defendants were also charged with assaulting policemen under aggravated circumstances, obstructing justice, and rioting.

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Once the cops had arrived and handcuffed Natan-Zada, dozens of local residents charged at the bus, stoned the prisoner, smashed the windows with iron bars and managed to enter the bus. The beat up the prisoner and kicked him, and one of them smashed his head with a stone. The lynching continued for one and a half hours.

On Monday, a district court in Haifa acquitted all 7 defendants in Natan-Zeda’s lynching trial of the charge of attempted murder. Out of the group, 4 were convicted of attempted manslaughter, and two of aggravated assault. One defendant was acquitted of all the charges.

The judges decided that the action undertaken by Natan-Zada prior to the lynching constituted a major provocation, evoking uncontrollable rage in the crowd, which is why the defendants could not be accused of murder or attempted murder.

Sentencing was postponed.

Hundreds of Israeli Arabs, including many residents of Shfar’am, demonstrated outside the Haifa court in preparation for the verdict.

At the time of the shooting at the bus, the AWOL soldier carried in his pocket an orange ribbon, which started a rumor that the shooting was done in protest of the Gush Katif evacuation, which took place a little over a week later.

Yori Yanover has been a working journalist since age 17, before he enlisted and worked for Ba'Machane Nachal. Since then he has worked for Israel Shelanu, the US supplement of Yedioth, JCN18.com, USAJewish.com, Lubavitch News Service, Arutz 7 (as DJ on the high seas), and the Grand Street News. He has published Dancing and Crying, a colorful and intimate portrait of the last two years in the life of the late Lubavitch Rebbe, (in Hebrew), and
two fun books in English: The Cabalist's Daughter: A Novel of Practical Messianic Redemption, and How Would God REALLY Vote.

I wish no persons death. but, even Hashem told us that we would indeed have to defend ourselves from barbaric pagan and vicious types. Thus, it is so now! Open Your Eyes World and see the muslim riots all over the world. the out right murder and wreckage they cause.